JSmith

Recent Actions

• Commented on Please don't hijack our funds for the original bike path
  I'm pretty the city is proposing enhancing and extending the Linear Park trail out to the Tonawanda line because it provides the biggest bang for the buck. In order to create a duplicate trail all the way along the railroad...
• Commented on Free up Connecticut Street
  That wooden storefront on the corner of 16th (top picture) would be simply beautiful if restored with big plate glass windows....
• Commented on Tappo raises the rooftop
  Dinosaur BBQ posted on Facebook that interior demolition started last week....
• Commented on Plans Submitted for 'Freight House Landing' Along Buffalo River
  This blog post (from Rochester) seemed particularly timely: http://heckeranddecker.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/drive-by-urbanism-part-ii/...
• Commented on How many new roads have we built since 1990 and how much is it costing us?
  What about the teachers' unions and education blob (whatever that is) in the suburban schools?...
• Commented on Niagara Street Gateway
  You know, I thought it was a direct quote from the mayor from the National Bike to Work Day press conference, but it may have been just been Go Bike Buffalo's stated goal: http://gobikebuffalo.org/programs/complete-streets/...
• Commented on Niagara Street Gateway
  Is it worse than being on the usual side of the parked cars and having no where to go to avoid an opening door except speeding traffic? They aren't absurd fears, but I wonder whether any of these concerns have...
• Commented on Niagara Street Gateway
  "What would Niagara look like without those turn lanes? Congested I'd imagine." Well, I imagine that might help promote the rapid bus transit line on Niagara that the NFTA and the regional transportation council are trying to develop. The best...
• Commented on Niagara Street Gateway
  We just striped bike lanes on Porter and Hudson, but they won't connect to lanes on Niagara. Connectivity is important. This part of Niagara has a lot of traditional commercial buildings, with storefronts facing the sidewalk. The Lower West Side...
• Commented on Niagara Street Gateway
  Take a look at what they have done in Indianapolis: http://www.streetfilms.org/the-indianapolis-cultural-trail/‎...
• Commented on Niagara Street Gateway
  It's not just about keeping bicyclists safer. It's about making people *feel* safer and welcome on a bicycle. Every study has shown that protected, separated bicycle tracks do a much better job at inviting new bicyclists that wouldn't otherwise be...
• Commented on Niagara Street Gateway
  It's almost exactly one mile long. I expect the cost is all in the repaving and the new street lights. (Not sure if they are actually tearing out the trees and replanting new ones a foot or two over like...
• Commented on Niagara Street Gateway
  I was really excited about this project since I first heard about it, but the actual proposed lane configuration document is very disheartening to read. It looks like the only portion with proper bicycle lanes is the roughly three blocks...
• Commented on On the Market: K-Mart at 998 Broadway
  Interesting! The devil is truly in the details!...
• Commented on Teamwork Removes Obscenity from Valley Grain Elevator
  In the most general terms, the East Side is everything east of Main. Some areas have additional neighborhood names (like Hamlin Park, Cold Spring, Kensington/Bailey, etc.) but would you say they aren't the East Side? Or is the East Side...
• Commented on Niagara Street Gateway
  In principle I agree with Steel. In practice it is easier to sell going from 4 lanes to "2 plus a center turning lane" because the center lane keeps traffic moving, while significantly reducing speeding (because traffic has to move...
• Commented on On the Market: K-Mart at 998 Broadway
  Thanks, that PDF is great! My comment about North Buffalo being the "sacrificial lamb" is just a slightly melodramatic paraphrase of what some of the people involved in the Green Code process have told me - that they needed to...
• Commented on On the Market: K-Mart at 998 Broadway
  And ironically enough, that Minneapolis Aldi is built to the sidewalk at the edge of a large suburban retail center, almost exactly like the Aldi in the K-Mart lot on Broadway!...
• Commented on On the Market: K-Mart at 998 Broadway
  Thanks for posting the updated Green Code map. You don't have a higher resolution version, by any chance? It's very hard to see the details. I don't care much for the car-centric design of the North Buffalo strip malls, but...
• Commented on On the Market: K-Mart at 998 Broadway
  Ah yes, I had forgotten that the Green Code is keeping the K-Mart plaza as a retail center. The rest of Broadway near Fillmore is being zoned as a pedestrian-focused street, though. Aldi would not be able to have that...
• Commented on On the Market: K-Mart at 998 Broadway
  That's fine, you can obviously afford it. Many people working minimum wage jobs cannot afford to own a car, or if they can, it takes an enormous bite out of their wage just to get to their job at the...
• Commented on How many new roads have we built since 1990 and how much is it costing us?
  "Do you not desire a somewhat nicer home than a falling down shack on Genesee near Moselle?" Well, that's a false dilemma if I ever heard one. Falling down shack in Genesee/Moselle (or perhaps in Black Rock?), or a McMansion...
• Commented on How many new roads have we built since 1990 and how much is it costing us?
  Actually, it has taken mainstream environmentalists quite a long time (until fairly recently) to appreciate that dense urban areas are much better environmentally than car-oriented sprawl. Part of this is because suburbs "look green", with reserved green space, wetlands (natural...
• Commented on How many new roads have we built since 1990 and how much is it costing us?
  I can't believe you quoted Andres Duany in an attempted defense of sprawl. Now I've seen everything!...
• Commented on Learning From San Diego: Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper.
  I think that's what Travelrrr meant - that those other pedestrian-oriented shopping streets would become as robust and thriving as Elmwood and Hertel over the next five years....
• Commented on On the Market: K-Mart at 998 Broadway
  That's why job sprawl is an enormous problem too. Not having a car wouldn't be so onerous if there were more jobs available nearby....
• Commented on On the Market: K-Mart at 998 Broadway
  Here's a picture of an Aldi in Minneapolis. It is a new build, but with a much more appropriate form for an urban setting. It shows that Aldi can be pressured into doing more than a cookie cutter big box,...
• Commented on How many new roads have we built since 1990 and how much is it costing us?
  The money paid by the developer doesn't magically appear. It comes out of the pockets of the people who buy or rent the developer's buildings. This figure of $26 million a year maintenance cost doesn't even reflect the other costs...
• Commented on Call to Arms: Peace Bridge Plans to be Aired Tomorrow Night
  If I understand the map correctly, all traffic (including trucks) trying to access the Peace Bridge from I-190S will have to get off and double back on Porter and go through the traffic circle. I'm concerned about how this will...
• Commented on Koelmel to Oversee HARBORcenter Project
  Whatever happened to bag lunches?...